Solving Problems like a technology company*
* Vertafore is a technology company
Link to this deck: https://slides.com/fooshards/dawgdays2018
Eric Fusciardi
No code in this presentation
Perspective Is Worth 80 IQ Points.
-Alan Kay
The dude who pioneered GUIs, SmallTalk, tablets and all sorts of stuff we love
Why talk about this
We are a technology company
Why does that distinction matter
Text
FAANGs - the big dogs
Amazon
Apple
Netflix
Google
The world needed more cute abbreviations
FAANGs - the big dogs
These are great role models from a devops / delivery standpoint.
Every technology company faces these same challenges, no matter their business domain.
FAANGs - the big dogs
Why should we look up to them?
Market share is cool and all, but nah
FAANGs - the big dogs
-
Look at the amount of stuff they deliver
- Every. Day.
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How flexible they are
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How quick they are
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How much data they can generate to help inform further decisions
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Ok facebook, calm down with the data
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Vertafore vs FAANG
- Our product is software
- We have teams of people all playing their part
- Development creates it
- Marketing generates interest for it
- Sales sells it
- Support helps customers use it
- Executives champion it
Seem familiar?
Vertafore == FAANG?
Let's watch a keynote
From Adam Jacob, CTO Chef, 2018
Because he's a better speaker than I am
Timehacked to skip the technical bits.
Your new four-letter words
- "Legacy"
- "They said"
- "They won't"
- "DHCP" lol
Let's harvest that +80 IQ points of perspective
Cross-domain collaboration absolutely has to happen, or we make dumb choices.
Cross-functional collab
- Too much collab
- Too little / Fake Collaboration
- Just right
Sidestepping vs Automating
- Using tools to go AROUND teams involvement, in domains they are involved in or are responsible for, is an objective failure.
- Well-formed changes take time, and take human interaction. It is necessary.
- Engage teams at problem definition
- Engage teams to review the solution
Can't be stressed enough
Red Tape
"Red Tape" isn't all bad
- Meeting legal controls
- Keeping customer commitments / contracts
- A common interface in which work is recorded
- Keeping a change history
- Increasing auditability
This all is pretty sweet.
Customers literally buy our products to automate their red tape
We don't make it go away.
We put it out of their minds, so they can deliver their work.
"Red Tape" becomes bad
When it is wielded as a weapon to obstruct healthy change.
When it fails to fulfill the compliance goals we must meet.
When it consumes orders of magnitude more time to navigate than it takes to make/verify the change to begin with.
Not to shit on ServiceNow too much but...
...wow does our usage of that tool need help
World won't change right away
...but
Devops doesn't have to be a war
The Thucydides Trap
The natural, inevitable discombobulation that occurs when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling power. This can happen in any sphere.
- Chris Short | Source
History lesson - Geopolitics
In the past 500 years, there are 16 cases of a major rising power which threatened to displace a ruling power.
- Chris Short | Source
Twelve of them resulted in war.
LOL Eric that's kind of dark
Well...
The four cases that avoided war, did so only because of huge, painful adjustments in attitudes and actions on the part of the challenger and challenged alike.
- Chris Short | Source
A little compassion
It's tough right now. The teams who we need to include, are often the ones understaffed and overworked. Many of the right people are remote or in other offices.
Listen carefully, present problems and potential solutions clearly, and ensure people are on board with approaches.
The more things as code, the better
Solution review becomes tool-assisted
Solution deployment is tool-assisted
Solution verification becomes tool-assisted
Auditing and compliance can be tool-assisted
Time spent in meetings decreased (Especially trying to coordinate across timezones, etc)
Cross-functional Code Review
Oh boy do we need more of this.
Executable code as an interface for conveying new builds / changes / features / devices / etc
FAVANG
FAANGV
VAGNAF
idk whatever lets just do it
remember your 4 letter words
try your best to adjust your perspective
remind others
be excellent to one another